LAFAYETTE, Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du
Motier, Marquis de, French soldier, born at the castle of Chavagnac, in Auvergne, 6 Sept.,
1757" died in Paris, 20 May, 1834. The family has been for more than
three centuries distinguished in French history. The subject of this article
was son of Michel Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, colonel of
grenadiers, who was killed in the battle of Min-den, 1 Aug., 1759, and Marie
Louise, daughter of Joseph Yves Hyacinthe, Marquis de la Riviere. In 1768 he
was taken by his mother to Paris, and entered the College of Louis-le-Grand.
In 1770 the death of his mother and grandfather left him with a very large
fortune. He became a page to the queen Marie Leczinska, and through her
influence received a lieutenant's commission in the royal musketeers, a body
of soldiers charged with the defense of the king's person. He married, 11
April, 1774, Anastasie Adrienne de Noailles. second daughter of the Duke
d'Ayen, afterward Duke de Noailles.

Having
been commissioned a captain of artillery in a regiment stationed at Metz,
toward the end of 1776 he happened to meet at dinner the Duke of Gloucester,
brother of George III., and heard
of the Declaration of
Independence and other events that had lately occurred in the United
States. An enthusiastic sentiment of devotion to "liberty"
and the "rights of man" was then growing up among youthful
Frenchmen in all classes of society. Many young officers were eager to go to
America, some from an intelligent interest in the cause at stake there, others
from a love of romantic adventure or a desire to strike a blow at the English
in revenge for the disasters of the Seven
Years' War. This last motive was strongly operative at court, though
opinion was far from unanimous there. Louis
XVI. had no sympathy with Americans or with rebels, and was fond of
repeating the humorous remark of his brother-in-law, Joseph II. : " I
am a royalist by my trade, you know."

The
policy of Choiseul, however, which would leave no stone unturned to undo the
work of the Seven years' war and weaken the colonial empire of England, found
favor with Marie Antoinette, as
well as with Count Vergennes, the able minister of foreign affairs. Caution
was needed, however. It was no part of the policy of Vergennes to run the risk
of a quarrel with Great Britain until it should become quite clear that the
American alliance was, from a military point of view, worth having. For the
present, accordingly, he contented himself with sending secret aid to the
Americans in the shape of money, arms, and ammunition. This aid was furnished
through the agency of the famous author, Beaumarchais (q. v.), and in such a
manner that the government might officially pretend to be ignorant of what was
going on. In this surreptitious way as early as the spring of 1777 a large
quantity of military stores had been conveyed to America, and had been
followed by such officers as Pulaski,
La Rouerie, and some fifty others. The Duke of Montmorency-Laval and other
young nobles asked the king's permission to go to America; but it was refused,
and for the sake of keeping up appearances the refusal had something of the
air of a reprimand. It was necessary, therefore, for Lafayette to proceed with
caution when he made up his mind, as the result of the conversation at Netz,
to cross the ocean and offer his services to congress. He consulted with the
Baron de Kalb, who was cherishing a similar intention. De Kalb introduced him
to Silas Deane, who gave him, 7 Dec., 1776, a letter of introduction to
congress, in which he alluded to the great dignity and influence of
Lafayette's family, and asked for him a major-general's commission. Lafayette
now proceeded secretly and at his own expense to fit out a vessel at Bordeaux,
but his preparations were somewhat delayed by the necessity of making a
journey to London in company with the Prince de Poix. He did not think it best
to decline the invitation to this journey for fear of exciting suspicion as to
his real plans. While at London, hearing of Washington's
victories at Trenton and Princeton,
he expressed such keen pleasure as to attract the notice of Lord Shelburne,
the warm friend of the Americans. Madame de Lafayette's uncle, the Marquis de
Noailles, was then the French ambassador at the court of St. James, and every
word and action of his young visitor was sure to be carefully watched and
weighed. After three weeks he returned secretly to Paris, leaving it to be
supposed that he was still in England, while, to keep up the concealment as
long as possible, the Marquis de Noailles explained his nonappearance in
society by spreading a report that he was slightly ill. After three days at De
Kalb's house in Paris,Lafayette
went on to Bordeaux. There he learned that the court had information of his
movements and had issued an order for his arrest. To avoid this he sailed with
his ship to Passage, a Spanish port, where his preparations were
completed.

Here
he received letters from his family and the ministry which led him to return
for a short, time to Bordeaux. A letter which he now wrote to the government,
begging permission to proceed with his enterprise, remained unanswered. In a
private letter to Maurepas, he observed that "silence gives
consent," and he should go on. There was more than mere pleasantry in
this. He doubtless understood well enough that the royal disapproval of his
movements was in great part assumed for the sake of appearances. He set sail
from Pasage, 26 April, 1777, taking with him De Kalb and eleven other
officers, and landed, 14 June, at Georgetown, S. C., whence he proceeded to
Charleston. After a journey of more than a month on horseback he arrived in
Philadelphia, where congress was in session. Congress was at that time beset
with so many applications from foreign officers in quest of adventure, and in
some instances, as in that of Du Coudray (q. v.), these applications led to so muchjealousy
and discontent that Lafayette at
first met with a rather cold reception ; but, after he had declared his wish
to serve as a volunteer and at his own expense, Congress (31 July, 1777)
appointed him major-general.

The
next day he was introduced to Washington, and the life-long friendship between
the two was at once begun. As it appeared that his appointment was for the
present merely honorary, Lafayette served for a time as a sort of volunteer
aide upon Washington's staff. At the Battle
of Brandywine, 11 Sept., he behaved very gallantly and received a wound in
the leg, which laid him up for two months. During this time he remained under
the care of the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem. On 25 Nov., in a
reconnaissance of General Greene
against Cornwallis's position at Gloucester Point, Lafayette with 300 men
defeated a superior force of Hessians. In recognition of this service he was
appointed, 4 Dec., to command the division of Washington's army lately under
Gen. Stephen, who had been removed for alleged misconduct in the Battle
of Germantown. The intrigue known as the "Conway cabal," for
removing Washington from the chief command of the Continental army and putting
Gates in his place, seemed at this time to be faring prosperously. Among the
schemes of the intriguers was one for an invasion of Canada, which Washington
was known to disapprove. It was thought that with the aid of Stark enough
Green Mountain boys could be enlisted to join with a small force of regulars
stationed at Albany, so as to make up an invading army of 4,000 men. The
command of this small army was offered by the board of war to Lafayette, and
it was hoped that on his arrival in Canada the French population of that
country would hail him as their deliverer, and would forthwith rise against
the British.

Lafayette's
appointment was dated 23 Jan., 1778, and at the same time Washington's enemy,
Conway, was made second in command. His first information of the appointment
was conveyed in a letter of 24 Jan. from Gates, enclosed in one from that
officer to Washington. Lafayette did not accept the command until he had first
consulted with Washington, and he furthermore insisted that De
Kalb, who outranked Conway, should accompany the expedition. On arriving
at Albany it appeared that the scheme was a fiasco quite worthy of the shallow
intriguers who had conceived it. The few regulars at Albany were in nowise
equipped for a winter march, no help could be .got from Stark, and not a
volunteer could be found m any quarter. The new alliance with France (6 Feb.,
1778) had put an end to the desire of the New England people for conquering
Canada. They feared that France might insist upon retaining it at the end of
the war, and they greatly preferred Great Britain to France for a neighbor.
The failure of this scheme was a serious blow to the enemies of Washington, to
whose camp Lafayette joyfully returned early in April. Throughout the whole
affair he showed much sagacity along with unswerving fidelity to Washington.

On 19 May the British General Grant, with an overwhelming force,
surprised him at Barren Hill, near Philadelphia; but Lafayette succeeded in
withdrawing his troops and artillery without loss. Here he gave proof of the
skill in handling men which afterward characterized his campaign in Virginia.
Washington's confidence in him was shown soon afterward at the Battle
of Monmouth, 28 June. The command of the force entrusted with the attack
upon Clinton's rear division was
at first assigned to Lee as the officer highest in rank next to Washington.
When Lee expressed his unwillingness to undertake the attack, Washington at
once assigned this very important operation to Lafayette. On the eve of the
battle Lee changed his mind, and begged for the command which he had before
refused. The operation was accordingly assigned to Lee, and Lafayette
commanded one of the divisions of his force. When the strange disorder and
retreat began, he was one of the first to suspect Lee's treachery, and sent a
messenger to Washington to hasten his arrival upon the field. During the
remainder of the battle, Lafayette commanded the second line with ability. He
was sent, 21 July, with two brigades of infantry, to operate under Sullivan in
Rhode Island. After the destructive storm of 19 Aug., he tried in vain to
dissuade D'Estaing from taking the fleet away to Boston: and, 29 Aug., rode on
horseback from Newport to Boston to urge the admiral's speedy return; next day
a gallop of eighty miles in eight hours brought him back to Rhode Island just
in time to assist in superintending the retreat of the American forces. For
his zealous efforts in this campaign he received from congress a vote of
thanks.

Having witnessed the ill success of this important enterprise, due
chiefly to the misunderstandings and want of co-operation between the French
and American commanders, Lafayette now thought that he could for a while be
more useful to the American cause in France than in the United States. The
alliance between the two countries would now insure him a favorable reception
at court, in spite of the technical irregularity of his first departure for
America, and the opportunity to visit wife and family could not but be
grateful to the young soldier. He obtained leave of absence from congress, 21
Oct., but was seized with a fever which kept him for several weeksdangerously
ill at Fishkill. He sailed from Boston, 11 Jan., 1779, in the new American
frigate "Alliance." a swift and well-built ship, but manned
by a rough and motley crew, picked up at short notice. A plot was laid among
these ruffians to seize the ship and take her into a British port, after
murdering all on board except Lafayette, who was to be delivered up to the
British government as a prisoner of suitable rank to be exchanged for Gen. Burgoyne.
The plot was betrayed to the marquis, who caused thirty of the mutineers, to
be put in irons. Arriving m Paris, 12 Feb., he was forbidden the king's
presence until he should have passed a week in confinement at his
father-in-law's palace. After purifying himself by this kind of "political
quarantine" from the stain of former disobedience, he was received
with favor at court, and appointed colonel of dragoons to serve in the army
with which it was designed to invade England early in the summer. The invasion
depended upon the combined support of the French and Spanish fleets, and owing
to the failure of this naval support was abandoned. Lafayette took much
pains in laying before Vergennes a clear and correct statement of the
situation in the United States, and on his own responsibility urged him to
send a land force as well as a fleet to cooperate with Washington's army. This
was a step in advance of the policy of congress, which as yet desired only
naval assistance, and dreaded the dissensions likely to arise between French
and American soldiers serving together. To avoid such dissensions, Lafayette
recommended that all disputes about precedence should be forestalled by
expressly placing the French auxiliary army under Washington's command, and
ordering that in all cases a French officer should be regarded as junior to an
American officer of equal rank.

These
views were supported by D' Estaing upon his arrival in France early in 1780,
and they were adopted by the ministry in sending out the auxiliary force of
6,000 men, under Count
Rochambeau, which arrived in Rhode Island 10 July of that year. To report
these negotiations to congress and prepare for the arrival of the troops,
Lafayette sailed from Rochelle in the French frigate "Hermione,"
19 March, 1780, and arrived, 27 April, in Boston harbor. After transacting
business at Philadelphia and Newport, connected with these matters, Lafayette
repaired to Washington's headquarters at Tappan on the Hudson, and was
appointed, 7 Aug., to command a special corps of 2,000 light infantry ; his
place, from first to last, was with the American army, not with the French
auxiliaries. An interview between Washington and Rochambeau was arranged for
20 Sept. at Hartford, and Lafayette and Knox
accompanied the American commander thither. Returning to the Hudson, they
reached West Point, 26 Sept., the day on which Arnold's treason was
discovered. Lafayette was a member of the board of fourteen generals that
condemned Andr5 to death.

When Arnold, with a British force,
invaded Virginia, early in 1781, Lafayette was sent with 1,200 men from the
New England and New Jersey lines to assist in the defense of that state. His
troops were ill equipped for a campaign; for want of tents they were obliged
to pass the frosty nights in the open air, and many of them were without hats
or shoes. At Baltimore he purchased the necessary clothes and equipments for
the troops, paying for them in drafts on the French treasury, which he
endorsed for greater security in ease the French government should not see fit
to add the amount to the loans already appropriated for the United States. The
military stores of Virginia were in great part concentrated at Richmond, and
the British commanders Arnold and Phillips had planned the destruction of that
town; but Lafayette arrived there, 29 April, in time to foil the designs of
the enemy. For some days skirmishing went on between Lafayette and Phillips,
who was suddenly seized with fever, and died 13 May, leaving Arnold in sole
command. Lord Cornwallis,
retreating from North Carolina after the battle of Guilford,
arrived 20 May at Petersburg, where he effected a junction with Arnold. The
British force now numbered 5,000 men, and Lafayette did not feel strong enough
to oppose it until he should have been re-enforced by Wayne, who was moving
southward with 1,000 infantry of the Pennsylvania line. He accordingly
retreated northward from Richmond toward Fredericksburg, with Cornwallis in
full pursuit. "The boy cannot escape me," wrote the British
general in a letter which was intercepted; but the young Frenchman's retreat
was admirably conducted.

He crossed the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, 4 June, and secured a strong
position, while Cornwallis paused for a moment and detached Tarleton on a raid
to Charlottesville, to break up the legislature which was in session there,
and to Albemarle, where a quantity of military stores had been collected. The
first part of the raid was partially successful, but Lafayette effected his
junction with Wayne, 7 June, and prevented Tarleton from approaching
Albemarle. Cornwallis now, when rejoined by Tarleton, abandoned as imprudent
the idea of an offensive campaign in the interior of the country, so far from
his base of operations on the sea-coast, and accordingly retreated to
Richmond. Lafayette was presently re-enforced by Steuben,
so that he outnumbered Cornwallis, who accordingly, 20 June, continued his
retreat, crossing the Chickahominy near White Oak Swamp, and marching down to
the peninsula to Williamsburg. At Green Spring, near that town, an indecisive
action was fought between parts of the two armies, 6 July, the Americans
attacking, but unsuccessfully. Cornwallis continued his retreat to Yorktown,
while Lafayette occupied Malvern Hill, and awaited further developments.
Washington and Rochambeau, with 6,000 men, started, 19 Aug., from the Hudson,
and reached the head of Chesapeake bay, 5 Sept., the same day on which the
French fleet, under De Grasse, repulsed the British fleet, and obtained full
possession of the Virginia waters. Cornwallis as yet knew nothing of
Washington's approach, but there was just a chance that he might realize his
danger, and, crossing the James river, seek safety in a retreat upon North
Carolina.

This solitary chance was now forestalled by Lafayette. The troops of
Saint-Simon, brought by the fleet, had now increased his army to 8,000, and
with his force he took his stand, 7 Sept., across the neck of the peninsula at
Williamsburg, thus cutting off Cornwallis's retreat. Washington arrived, 14
Sept., at Lafayette's headquarters and took command, and the ensuing
concentration of allthe allied
forces at Williamsburg sealed the doom of Cornwallis. During the whole
campaign, from 20 May to 14 Sept., while Lafayette was in command opposed to
Cornwallis, his conduct was prudent and skilful, and contributed in no slight
degree toward the grand result. On 22 Dec. he sailed again from Boston in the "Alliance,"
and on his arrival in France was greeted with enthusiasm. An army of 24,000
French and Spanish troops was about to assemble at Cadiz, and Lafayette was
appointed chief-of-staff, with a brevet of major-general. Before the
preparations for this expedition were completed, the war was at an end, and
Lafayette sent from Cadiz the swift frigate "Triumph," which
arrived, 23 March, 1783, at Philadelphia, with the first news of peace. Next
year, at Washington's invitation, he returned to the United States, and after
a visit to Mount Vernon made a journey through the country from Virginia to
Massachusetts. On 25 Dec., 1784, he sailed from New York in the French frigate
"Nymphe." In 1785 he traveled in Germany. About this time he
was deeply interested in the abolition of slavery, and purchased a large
plantation in Cayenne, where great numbers of slaves might be educated with a
view to gradual emancipation. Washington, Jefferson, and others were
interested in this experiment, which it was hoped might furnish an example for
imitation in the United States.

In 1787 Lafayette was a member of the assembly of notables, and in the
states-general of 1789 he sat as representative of the nobility of Auvergne.
He was chosen, 26 July, 1789. commander-in-chief of the National guard, a
position which he held till 8 Oct., 1791. Part of his difficult duties at this
time related to the protection of the king and queen, who distrusted him, as
they distrusted every one who might have been of real service to them. His
moderate views made Lafayette very distasteful to the Jacobins, and with their
rise to power his influence and popularity diminished. Having been promoted
lieutenant-general, 30 June, 1791, he was appointed, on the declaration of war
against Austria, 20 April, 1792, to command the army of the center, 52,000
strong, between Philippeville and Lauterbourg. From his camp at Maubeuge, 16
June, he wrote the famous letter to the National assembly, in which he
denounced the dangerous policy of the Jacobins. The insurrection of 20 June
followed. On the 28th Lafayette came to Paris, and appeared before the
assembly to defend his course. After two days, finding the Jacobins
all-powerful in the city, he returned to camp, and formed a plan for removing
the king from Paris. Before the plan was fully matured, and while his army was
at Sedan, only four days' march from the capital, there came the news of the
revolution of 10 Aug. and the imprisonment of the king. Lafayette now refused
to obey the orders of the assembly, and arrested the three commissioners sent
by that body to his camp. In return the assembly removed him from command and
appointed Dumouriez in his place, 19 Aug.; his impeachment was also decided
upon, and it became evident that his soldiers were in sympathy with the
Jacobins. He fled into Belgium with half a dozen companions, was taken
prisoner by the Austrians, and handed over by them to the Prussians, by whom
he was imprisoned first at Wesel, afterward at Magdeburg. He was offered his
liberty on condition of assisting the allies in their invasion of France, but
refused. After a year's incarceration at Magdeburg, he was transferred to
Austria for safe keeping, and passed the next four years in a loathsome
dungeon at Ohnutz, where he was treated with barbarous cruelty. Much sympathy
was felt for him in the United States and in England. In parliament, Fox,
Wilberforee, and Sheridan were active in his behalf, and Washington wrote to
the emperor, Francis I1., asking that he might be allowed to come on parole to
the United States. In the autumn of 1794, through the boldness and skill of
Dr. Bollmann, a young German physician, and Francis Kinlock Huger, of South
Carolina, he was actually set free, and had nearly got clear of Austrian
territory when he was captured, loaded with irons, and carried back to his
dungeon. With much difficulty, in 1795, his wife and two daughters got
permission to share his captivity.

In these sufferings Lafayette served as the scapegoat upon which the
emperor could freely vent his rage at the revolutionary party in general for
the indignities heaped upon his kinswoman Marie Antoinette. The unfortunate
victim was at length set free, 23 Sept., 1797, by the victories of Bonaparte.
After a sojourn in Holstein and then in Holland, he returned to France in
March 1800, after the overthrow of the Directory, and retired to his castle of
La Grange, in Brie, about forty-three miles from Paris. Napoleon sought to
gain his adherence by offering him a senatorship, the cross of the Legion of
honor, and the position of minister to the United States; but he declined
these offers. He also declined President Jefferson's offer in 1805 to appoint
him governor of Louisiana. During Napoleon's rule he remained in the quiet of
his home at La Grange, where his wife died, 24 Dec.,1807.
Click
hereto see house illustration.

On
Napoleon's return from Elba, it seemed desirable to secure the support of that
moderate liberal sentiment which Lafayette had always consistently
represented, and Joseph Bonaparte was accordingly sent to La Grange to sound
Lafayette and secure his allegiance. Lafayette refused to accept a place in
the hereditary peerage which the Corsican proposed to re-establish, or to
attach himself in any way to his fortunes. "If I should ever again
appear in public life," said he, "it can only be as a
representative of the people." When a chamber of representatives was
established he was chosen member for the Department of Seine-et-Marne, but
took little or no part in the proceedings until after Waterloo. On 21 June,
1815, he insisted that Napoleon's abdication should be demanded, while at the
same time his life and liberty should be guaranteed by the nation. He
endeavored unsuccessfully to procure for Napoleon the means of escaping to the
United States. In 1818, after three years of seclusion at home, he was elected
to the chamber of deputies, where he sat till 1824, as a leader of the
opposition, opposing the censorship of the press, and voting for all truly
liberal measures. In 1824 congress passed unanimously a resolution requesting President
Monroe to invite Lafayette to visit the United States. He sailed from
Havre, 12 July, in an American merchantman, and arrived 15 Aug. in New York. In the course of the next fourteen months he traveled through the whole
country, visiting each of the twenty-four states and all the principal cities,and was everywhere received with tokens of enthusiastic reverence and affection. In considerationof his services in the Revolutionary
war, congressvoted him a grant
of $200,000, besides a township of 24,000 acres, to be assigned somewhereamong the unappropriated public lands. His sixty-eighth birthday, 6
Sept., 1825, was celebrated atthe White
House in Washington, on which occasion a noble farewell speech was
pronounced byPresident
Adams, and next day he sailed from the Potomac in the frigate "Brandywine,"
and arrived in Havre, 5 Oct. The illustrationclick hererepresents a vase that was presented to him by the midshipmen of the
frigate shortly after his arrival, he was again, in 1827, elected to the
chamber of deputies.

In the revolution of July, 1830,he
was made commander-in-chief of the National guard, and was instrumental in
placing Louis Philippe on the throne, in the hope that France,
might thus at. length be enabled to enter upon the path of peaceful
constitutional progress. He remained a member of thechamber ofdeputies until his death.He receiveda magnificent funeral, and his remains were interred beside those of
his wife in the cemetery of Picpus in the faubourg Saint-Antoine. The grave is
shown in the illustration above. He left one son, George Washington, and two
daughters, Anastasie and Virginie; the elder married Charles de Latour
Maubourg, and the younger the Count de Lasteyrie.

In person Lafayette was tall and powerfully built, with broad
shoulders, deep chest, and a tendency toward corpulence. His features were
large and strongly marked. He had much dignity of manner, and was ordinarily
quiet and self-possessed. Perhaps the best testimony to his purity of character
is the fact that his bitterest detractors, in the absence of any other
available charge, are in the habit of insisting upon his vanity. Among all the
eminent Frenchmen of the revolutionary period, he was perhaps the only one in
whose career there was nothing to be really ashamed of. His traits of
character were solid rather than brilliant; and he was too thoroughly imbued
with American ideas to identify himself with any one of the violent movements
originating in the French revolution of 1789. His love of constitutional
liberty was too strong for him to cooperate either with Bourbons or with
Jacobins or with Bonapartists; and from all three quarters attempts have been
made to detract from his rightful fame. In European history his place, though
not among the foremost, is respectable ; in American history he is not only a
very picturesque and interesting figure, but his services in our struggle for
political independence were of substantial and considerable value.

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